SOCIAL URBANISM

CARLOS ANCALMO, M.C.FRECH, and SIMON VEGA (El Salvador)

Mixed Media Exhibit

February 1 - 28, 2003

Miami, FL

SOCIAL URBANISM IS THEME OF NEW EXHIBIT
HIGHLIGHTING WORKS OF INTERNATIONAL ARTISTS
LIVING IN U.S. AND ABROAD

Conceived and Curated by Miami Artist Robert ChambersMiami Beach, November 5, 2002

Following on the heels of the successful, pioneering “artpoint” exhibit during Art Basel, Urban Investments Advisors has opened its Miami Beach office building again for another powerful collection of works by emerging artists.
Social Urbanism is a groundbreaking effort that will bring together innovative contemporary international artists living in the United States and abroad. Carlos Ancalmo from New York, Simon Vega from El Salvador, M.C.Frech from Miami, will present their new works in a fresh and accessible venue. Conceived by Robert Chambers, who curated Globe>Miami<Island at the Bass Museum of Miami Beach in December 2001, Social Urbanism promises to be a continuation of the philosophy behind that show, which is to demonstrate that Miami has become a middle ground for artists living in the United States and The Americas, thereby eventually creating ties with the Miami art scene.
The exhibit will be held February 1 – 20, from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m., in the lobby gallery space at 1674 Meridian Avenue, Miami Beach, between 17th Street and Lincoln Road. An opening reception in honor of the artists will be held on Saturday February 1, from 7 – 9 p.m. Admission is free and open to the public.
The organizers and host committee of Social Urbanism include: Mauricio Giammattei, Development Director, Creative Juice in Miami Beach; Ana Stella Schwartz, former Latin American & Contemporary Art Director of Sloan’s Auctioneers, Coral Gables; Alexandra Regalado, Writer, San Salvador; Mario Cader-Frech, Minister Counselor of Cultural Affairs, Embassy of El Salvador, and director of Urban Investments Advisors’ Project for the Arts; Florence Kriete, Vice Consul of El Salvador, Consulate General of El Salvador in Miami.
Social Urbanism is conveniently located only one-half block from Lincoln Road, in a newly renovated building owned by the exhibit’s sponsor, Urban Investments Advisors LLC, a Washington, D.C.-based real estate development company that has a long history of supporting artists throughout the U.S. For more information about the company, visit the website, www.Urban-Advisors.com.

ABOUT THE ARTISTS
Carlos Ancalmo was born in El Salvador in 1967. He works with a variety of found and re-contextualized media to explore his own aggregate heritage. One theme the artist has been developing is the convergence of (u/dys/a)topian thought with a ficticious Central American isolationism. The latter may be a sentimental by-produce of his own life history, having left El Salvador during the recent civil war. Through obsessively conceived sculptures, the artist attempts to challenge the didactic aura of dioramas. Individual pieces often result from the merging of koan and icon, that questions a life based on translations. In the experience of these installations, there is a sense of metonymic, scientific layering, but at the heart of his work is an accidental longing for the true meanings of self. (917)653-2506 car105@hotmail.com
Simon Vega was born in El Salvador in 1972. Using as the center of the content in his works, the artist’s works on paper interpret the integration of dualities, the coexistence of opposites, the simultaneity of ideas, and contradictory feelings and emotions. He uses Baroque-styled cities and jungle drawings, superimposed by graffiti text abstractions, and human apparitions, composing detailed utopias with the clear intention of being navigated by the viewer’s eyes and mind, to find individual meaning in each of the saturated drawings filled with symbolisms and scenes reminiscent of urban chaos and routes of scape. cuzucos@exite.com
M.C.Frech was born in El Salvador in 1964. The artist manipulates ideas through many different media, in pursuit of his answers. One might term his artwork pluralist, conceptualist and socialist. His current works are emphasized in the aspects of high and low culture, raising the preoccupation with materials good that people are forced to take on, and revolve around the artist’s fascination with a certain element inherent in everyday popular culture in developing nations, such as gold tooth crowns. (202)256-6542 MarioCader@aol.com ABOUT URBAN PROJECT FOR THE ARTS AND THE COLLECTION
Urban Project for the Arts, under the direction of Mario Cader-Frech, was established in 1998 to showcase and promote cutting edge artists through public art interventions in retail windows, lobbies, and buildings managed by Urban Investments Advisors, LLC to create a cross section between the artist community and the general public.
Artists can submit their biography and photos or sketches of the work they wish to showcase. Each submission is reviewed and kept on file. If selected, a vacant retail window or event space will be assigned.
The director also works with not-for-profit arts organizations, galleries, museum directors, and curators to create special events, such as art fairs to be held in vacant buildings. In 2001 Urban Project for the Arts sponsored the highly successful inaugural Meat Market Art Fair in New York City, which was comprised of 15 art galleries and non-profit organizations; in 2002 Urban Project for the Arts sponsored the first ArtPoint art fair during Art Basel Miami Beach, which comprised of 6 non-profit arts organizations covering the entire United States.

The Urban Investments Collection was initiated in 1998 to promote the works of living talented artists in the United States. It features works in all media, including video, mixed media, sculpture, photography, digital art, painting and drawing. Artists include: Aeyung Park, Amy Sillman, Sharon Louden, Steve Mumford, Bobbie Oliver, Carrie Yamaoka, David Nelson, Jason Horowitz, Joy Episalla, Lorna Bieber, Medrie MacPhee, Melinda Stickney-Gibson, Marco Maggi, Sueraya Shaheen, and others.
The collection can be viewed at the company’s headquarters in Dupont Circle, Washington D.C. and in markets where Urban Investments Advisors, LLC has investments: Miami, Miami Beach, Coral Gables, Washington DC, Old Town Alexandria, Chevy Chase MD, New York City, South of Norwalk, Boston, and Chicago.

Contact: Lisa Treister (305) 531-5720 lisa@tma-pr.com